Army reserves in jail drama
An armed and well-trained team of builders, teachers and lawyers stormed New Plymouth prison to deal with an incident of civil unrest at the weekend.
The force, all members of the West Coast Company Army Reserve, were on the hunt for a mysterious ‘‘Mr Harry’’, who was believed to have taken over the disused jail and to be holed up somewhere inside the empty cells and corridors.
At 9.15am on Sunday the team went in. I was close behind them, and the noise and the gunfire was terrifying. We moved swiftly through the dark corridors, the gunfire lighting up the darkness and giving brief illumination as we made our way to where they believed ‘‘Mr Harry’’ was waiting.
I heard shouting and soon ‘‘Mr Harry’’ and his insurgents were captured and led out.
And the squad who apprehended him will all be be back at at their day jobs by now.
‘‘The operation has gone really well,’’ said Major Tim Easton from the NZ Army 5/7 RNZIR.
He was one of the senior officers overseeing the weekend exercises.
The 26 soldiers and support staff from the Palmerston North and New Plymouth areas who were taking part, come from all walks of life but meet up regularly for training exercises.
The aim is to perform some core security and stability training operations in a medium threat situation, such as might be encountered in the Pacific region, such as East Timor or the Solomon Islands.
‘‘We’ve trained them up to do it so this was them putting it into operation,’’ Easton said.
‘‘We had a great opportunity to use the prison.’’
The operation began early on Saturday morning and concluded at lunchtime Sunday.